Moral Panic Over Meth

Abstract

In the last few years, ‘meth’ (methamphetamine) has become a major concern for law enforcement officials in rural America. Meth is the label given to a homemade substance that is manufactured (typically) in rural labs using fertilizers, cold tablets, and household acids. The amateur nature of the production process separates meth from its commercially produced equivalents, the stimulant medications that are the first‐line therapy agents for attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy and that are authorized by the United States Air Force as fatigue countermeasures. A way to understand the social construction of the meth‐scare is to apply the moral panic conceptual framework. A moral panic is a social condition that becomes defined as a threat to community values and whose nature is presented in a stereotypical fashion by the mass media. The official reaction to the social condition is out of all proportion to the alleged threat. Reporting about a moral crisis involves a continuous exaggeration of the problematic aspects of the social condition and an ongoing repetition of fallacies. Discussions of meth tend to obscure its nature while heightening horrors that immediately promote a limited and inaccurate notion of the nature of meth. The emergence of the idea that meth is something new has activated a particular set of social responses that have a harsh impact on those designated as meth users. The meth scare is blinding people to the plight of white, underclass, rural, poor people.

Keywords:

• Meth
• Moral Panic
• Amphetamines
• Methamphetamines
• Ritalin
• Meth Babies